That’s a good thing!
A short while ago some interesting tweets came down from former UW Husky and Seattle Supersonics star Detlef Schrempf.
https://twitter.com/Dschrempf/statuses/212913947345551362
https://twitter.com/Dschrempf/statuses/212915738741190657
THE NEWS: Steve Ballmer and the Nordstroms have joined Chris Hansen to bring back the Sonics (Scroll down for details)
Seattle SuperSonics
Mitch has gone on the record as saying that Chris Hansen knew all about Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s visit with David Stern in New York.
When this news originally came down most people assumed Chris Hansen knew nothing about this visit, and that McGinn had possibly gone rogue.
All we’d heard thus far from the Hansen camp was to do the following.
1. Contact your elected officials - Let them know you support a new Arena in Seattle’s Stadium District.
2. Follow Sonics Arena on Twitter (Here)
3. Like them on facebook (Here)
4. Sign the petition
Read the Memorandum of Understanding (Here)
Here’s the message from Chris Hansen on SonicsArena.com regarding Mayor McGinn’s meeting with the NBA.
I just wanted to personally thank Mayor McGinn for taking the time to meet with Commissioner Stern yesterday and discuss the details of our plan and the merits of our fine city. Bringing the NBA back to Seattle is a community effort, and having our local officials and business leaders come forward like they have is critical to our success.
I also just wanted to share that both the Mayor and Commissioner Stern had appraised me of the meeting weeks in advance, and that this was not the surprise that some have tried to portray. As I am sure all of you can appreciate, it’s not my responsibility to share all of the intimate details of this process with the press, or even my own PR firm (which was the case here). I’m not sure why people try to create drama where it doesn’t exist, but I’m just here to let you all know McGinn and I are 100% on the same page on this.
— Chris Hansen
We’ll know more details shortly. I’ll update this post when we do.
Hansen quotes from today on KJR.
- “The rally will be an opportunity for Seattle to be Sonics fans again. Payton, Kemp, Watts will all be there”
- “It’s not my job to tell counsels when to vote.”
- “Next week I’ll be meeting with both the city and the county counsels. This will be the first time with me in front of the entire counsel.”
- “I was aware 3 weeks ago that McGinn was going to meet Stern. It’s a sensitive issue, lots of details that should not be discussed in the press.”
- “A newspaper reporter took a comment from our PR firm and that’s what people were hearing.”
- “The meeting went well. You’d have to ask McGinn for more details. The NBA is excited about the prospect of us building a new arena. Very supportive”
- “I don’t know if anyone at the NBA will give specific insights (into when a franchise could come to Seattle). It’s on us to find an NBA team willing to relocate”
- “A couple of our investors have asked to come forward early. Steve Balmer and Erik and Pete Nordstrom”
- “The investor group will be less than ten people. I want them to share my vision”
- “I”m going to be the largest partner in the group, I will safely be a majority owner”
My Thoughts
Not a huge surprise. We all know Microsoft CEO Ballmer is a huge hoops fans who regularly sat courtside at Sonics games before SonicsGate went down in 2008. He was also a big part of the last-ditch effort to keep the team in Seattle.
The Nordstroms. Folks that do things the right way. The name is synonomous in Seattle. Great members of the Seattle community. Just hearing the Nortstrom name is deja-vu all over again. The Nordstroms family owned the Seahawks from 76-88 in case you are to young to remember the name.
This is very very good news today. Hansen’s investment group seems ROCK SOLID now.
What we do know
RALLY TO BRING BACK THE SONICS
There is a RALLY TO BRING BACK OUR SONICS!
When: June 14th, 4pm
Where: Occidental Park, Seattle WA
https://twitter.com/sonicsarena/statuses/212698402964770817
